Dumb ideas that work

Some time back a fellow brew buddy offered up some 17oz. German flip top bottles. I would be a total dumbass to turn these down. Thankfully he dropped them off at the house one day and I left him some past home brew mix packs. I’m finally getting around to using them, so I started cleaning them yesterday. He’s made the switch to kegs, which obviously means he’s smarter than I am. Some of the bottles had some left overs in them. But before I keep going this is no way a complaint. It’s simply me proving how dumb I am and in fact the dumb stuff I think of actually works. I was having trouble getting the left overs out of the bottle. I typically don’t use a bottle brush, but pulled it on these naturally. My hands were getting raw twisting the brush between my palms as if I was trying to start a fire with a stick like my ancestors.

I decided to get my 18v drill out and to make this work I simply squeezed the round end together to fit inside the drill end.



Using the brush attached on the drill made this a thousand times easier. The biggest benefit was that the brush handle wasn’t straight. This allowed the brush to run an elliptical type circle and hit all sides (does a circle have sides?) of the bottle. The biggest trouble was getting the bottom corners. So I had to put some bends on the tip to get the bristles at that angle.

Now if anyone thinks, “Well I never clean my bottles, and I’ve never had off flavors.” then take a look at what came out of just a simple 20 bottles. I’m really excited about using these bottles. Hopefully my rocket problem will go away?
Also, if anyone is interested on the easiest way to remove labels. My trick is to take a pot of boiling water, usually 2 – 3 gallons, and dump into a simple cooler. Put the bottles in first to avoid burns from doing it latter. Open the lid a mere 40 minutes later and pull the labels off. They’re not pressed, but they have now been steamed away. A quick wipe with a brush will remove all the glue also. Now to bottle this ‘Hoppy Little Weizen’.

Cheers!